"It doesn't take an Einstein to understand modern physics," says Professor Wolfson at the outset of these 24 lectures on what may be the most important subjects in the universe: relativity and quantum physics. Both have reputations for complexity. But the basic ideas behind them are, in fact, simple and comprehensible by anyone. These dynamic and illuminating lectures begin with a brief overview of theories of physical reality starting with Aristotle and culminating in Newtonian or "classical" physics.

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Publisher's Summary

"It doesn't take an Einstein to understand modern physics," says Professor Wolfson at the outset of these twenty-four lectures on what may be the most important subjects in the universe: relativity and quantum physics. Both have reputations for complexity. But the basic ideas behind them are, in fact, simple and comprehensible by anyone. These dynamic and illuminating lectures begin with a brief overview of theories of physical reality starting with Aristotle and culminating in Newtonian or "classical" physics. After that, you'll follow along as Professor Wolfson outlines the logic that led to Einstein's profound theory of special relativity and the simple yet far-reaching insight on which it rests. With that insight in mind, you'll move on to consider Einstein's theory of general relativity and its interpretation of gravitation in terms of the curvature of space and time.

From there, you'll embark on a dazzling exploration of how inquiry into matter at the atomic and subatomic scales led to quandaries that are resolved-or at least clarified-by quantum mechanics, a vision of physical reality so profound and so at odds with our experience that it nearly defies language.

By bringing relativity and quantum mechanics into the same picture, you'll chart the development of fascinating hypotheses about the origin, development, and possible futures of the entire universe, as well as the possibility that physics can produce a "theory of everything" to account for all aspects of the physical world. But the goal throughout these lectures remains the same: to present the key ideas of modern physics in a way that makes them clear to the interested layperson.

Disclaimer: Please note that this recording may include references to supplemental texts or print references that are not essential to the program and not supplied with your purchase.

I admit up front that I have a strong interest in this topic (relativity) but have only recently tried to better understand it. Professor Wolfson does a terrific job of keeping the explanations simple and easy to understand. He moves along quickly, so the listener needs to stay focused. But I really enjoyed listening to this and professor Wolfson makes it easy to listen to. If you want to have a basic understanding of relativity, this is a great audio book to start with. I strongly recommend this.

I had some difficulties with this book, as the lecturer probably uses lots of pictures and illustrations. "As you see here..", "In the picture...", "Here we have clock A..." Fortunately the lecturer has so clear style in presentation, that it is possible to follow through examples without the illustrations.

AND where are the illustrations? As I have bought a book that uses illustrations, I would expect them to be visible. Can't at least find them in the Audible pages.

I would guess this would be good video lecture to follow. As audiobook .. leaves lots of room for improvement. As general book about theory of Relativity and Quantum physics, quite nice.

If you could sum up Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition in three words, what would they be?

To me this lecture was laid out very well. It help to give a nice introduction to modern physic without being too technical. While this is a good thing to not scare away a beginner or someone interested to learn more it lacks the technical information to make the ideas more concrete and less subjective. This is the way it is with any attempt to teach physics to non-scientist, so not a fault of the lecture but it would be great to have a follow up that take us to the next level. It is from 2000 so it is missing some new information but for a basic foundation it is very good. I found Professor Richard Wolfson to be a very good speaker, easy to understand and follow.

I've read and listened to a few books on the two subjects, but this one cleared up some confusion and filled in some gaps. For example

- With special relativity, you frequently hear the twin paradox - when one leaves on a space ship, comes back and is younger than the earth bound twin. Most explainations i've heard usually end there, but then when you think about, if motion is relative, why isn't it the earth bound twin that stays young and the space traveler age? This book clearly explained a resolution to the paradox and it all finally makes sense

- All of the books i've read/listened to always say, "Plank started the quantum revolution when he studied heat". then the next sentence would be about Einstein and the photoelectric effect. None of them stopped to explain what plank did. This book actually explains the "UV catastrophe" and how Plank resolved the problem.

What about Professor Richard Wolfson’s performance did you like?

The professor of your dreams - enthusiastic, great eplainations, and anticipated questions of the audience well

I really enjoy science but I guess I'm what you would call a Lay person. I found Professor Wolfson's lecture engaging and informative. The repetition of key elements really helps hammer in a few key conceptual anchors.

I am a professional Narrator and I find when I listen for a book that grabs me as a listener and keeps me, I'm stymied by repetitive cadences and falling inflections even from top narrators. I'm referring to fiction as well as non-fiction. It's a hard thing to avoid with long hours in the booth. I know, I've been there. Listening to professor Wolfson has reminded me not just to convey a story in the appropriate mood, but to EXPLAIN it. To lead a listener through the thought and intention behind every sentence. It's hard to keep up but I think that's what's engaging: a feeling of extemporaneousness; that the story is flowing organically through the narrator.

on another note:Richard, If you're reading, you should get in touch with Alan Alda. Read the article in today's NYtimes. He could use your help!

I was a little ambivalent about trying one of these "Great Courses" on audio, especially with references to diagrams and such, but the instructor promised at the beginning that you could follow along at home without needing the pictures, and he was right, though there are points at which it might benefit a listener to pause the the lecture long enough to look up the diagram if you are having trouble visualizing what he describes.

This is a course on advanced physics for people who are not physics students. All that high-level stuff like General and Special Relativity, the three fundamental forces, quantum mechanics, why nothing can go faster than light, how time dilation works, what is really going on with black holes and whether "wormholes" really exist (answer: there is currently no actual evidence of them, we just know that the math supporting the possibility of their existence works) and a dozen other topics for any long-time science fiction reader.

And that is why I downloaded this course, because I haven't had a physics class since high school, and I've had only a brief survey course on quantum mathematics, but I wanted to understand the physics behind relativistic travel and the formation of the universe and quantum theory and all that jazz well enough to feel educated when I read science fiction that tries to be "hard" (and even to have a better grounding for any SF I might write myself...).

I would say this course works very well for that purpose. The professor promises that the math is minimal, so at several points he handwaves the formulas, saying "Trust me (but go look it up if you want to really understand it)" but assures us that the concepts he explains require no more than high school algebra, for the most part, and this was also true. So this is a very "math light" physics course for non-physicists, and thus for someone who is a veteran of hard SF there won't be much here in the way of new concepts - you have probably read Heinlein's Time for the Stars in which a pair of telepathic twins conduct the famous "twin experiment" with one twin staying on Earth getting old while the other twin sets off on a journey in a spaceship traveling at near-lightspeed. And you've read lots of stories about black holes and how they "slow time" as you approach the event horizon. (Go see Interstellar - it's a fantastic movie.) And you know that pure matter-energy conversion would be a billion times more efficient than nuclear fusion, if we could do it. And you've heard of Schroedinger's Cat and how supposedly we could use paired qubits to achieve faster-than-light communication (we can't). And gravity warps time and space, and light is a particle and a wave (and in fact so is all matter, really), and Einstein refused to believe God rolled dice with the universe.

All that is covered here, and at the end of it, you'll understand it better, conceptually, but obviously this cannot replace an actual physics course and if you want to really, really understand it, you'd have to actually get deeper into the math. I now have a better understanding of what physics says about General and Special Relativity and black holes and time travel and quantum entanglement. Do I really, thoroughly understand it? You'll probably find several points Professor Wolfson covers need to sit with you awhile, and some stuff you'll really have to read more deeply to fully "get it." But you can get the gist adequately from this course.

So, this course will not work as a substitute for taking an actual physics class. It probably won't even work very well as a primer. But if you're just a layman who already has some idea of the stuff you've been reading about in science fiction but you want to know more about it, you'll find this course quite valuable, and if you actually don't know any of this stuff, it will probably blow your mind.

The lecturer builds up his topics very carefully, starting with what ancient astronomers and physicists knew, all the way back to Aristotle. There is a lot of physics history here, so you'll get your Copernicus and Galileo and Newton and Maxwell and Bohr and of course Einstein, and that part is also quite interesting, as there is just a little bit of biographical information about each person, but more importantly, what exactly they figured out and how and how it changed what was known up to that point in time.

What made the experience of listening to Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition the most enjoyable?

It's a fascinating topic, and Prof. Wolfson is clearly passionate about the subject.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I found myself listening to 2-3 lessons at a time, and doing more chores than usual, because I was learning so much.

Any additional comments?

Prof. Wolfson does sometimes sound like he's rushing to get through the material, in the tone and nature of his speech, but I was able to follow along with everything he explained. Obviously he couldn't cover everything. He made the comment several times "no math!", which must say something about the intended audience. I'm not afraid of math, so I would've liked a little more on the math side, and more-detailed explanations of some of the more complicated subjects.

Also, I'm not sure when it was recorded, probably early 2000s? Which means he's a bit out of date, e.g. talking about the Large Hadron Collider at Cern that was *going* to be built, which has now been built, and the Higgs Boson being a speculative particle, which they've now discovered. But hey, now I know what the "Hadron" in "the Large Hadron Collider" means!

Overall, it's an easy-to-follow intro to both relativity and quantum physics. Almost certainly you can find all of this information elsewhere, but this is a nice format and a nice presentation.

What did you like best about Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition? What did you like least?

Good lecturer, it's almost as if he knows he's being recorded for replay in audio only format.

What does Professor Richard Wolfson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I presume a "book" would have been a transcription of these lectures. This is a good lecture, I don't imagine the book version, a transcription, would be better. Transcripts are never better than a good lecture just as movies aren't as good as the original book.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

probably not. I can't watch a movie while walking.

Any additional comments?

I completely disagree with this disclaimer in the product description: "Please note that this recording may include references to supplemental texts or print references that are not essential to the program and not supplied with your purchase". I don't expect the books he says are in the bibliography but I do expect to not have to stop and write down the book title and instead refer to the bibliography. To not even include a bibliography saves nobody anything but causes intense dissatisfaction on the part of me, the consumer. I don't want to listen to an entire lecture just to get the name of the book he mentioned somewhere in the last 50 minutes of walking. The bibliography is essential. If I wanted only the audio content I'd go look for the torrent (why should I not look there for my next book? the service is equivalent).

I've always rather regretted dropping physics at the age that I did, but assumed that my lack of advanced mathematics was probably a barrier to investigating the subject further by myself. I'm ecstatically happy to be proven wrong.

I couldn't really be happier with this course. It seems to be pitched towards an undergraduate non-scientist level, which is to say that it assumes that you don't know any physics already, but *does* assume that you have a few brain cells to rub together. So far so perfect.

The content is no doubt simplified and focused on the conceptual (Advanced physics without maths? How could it not be?), but Professor Wolfson is superb in how he takes the listener through the evolution of various theories in engaging logical steps.

NOTE: There are references throughout the lecture series to occasional diagrams and course materials, which are *not* available for Audible customers to download form the Great Courses website. A quick google search however will usually provide you with similar diagrams if you just throw in the relative topic keywords.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

E

CULLOMPTON, United Kingdom

1/16/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"Look forward to listening again"

Would you listen to Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition again? Why?

I think listening again will help me understand further this complex subject!

What other book might you compare Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition to, and why?

Perhaps Stephen Hawkings brief history of time

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

James Shields

London, UK

1/31/15

Overall

"Wonderful"

Who needs religion when you have such a wonderful scientific real world out there, described so clearly and enthusiastically in these lectures. A real pleasure from beginning to end.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Adrian

Tralee, Ireland

12/18/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"The title says it all. Emphasis on non-scientists"

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. The lectures are well structured and progressive in approach.

What other book might you compare Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition to, and why?

None that I have come across as yet.

Have you listened to any of Professor Richard Wolfson’s other performances? How does this one compare?

No

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

It felt a little slow in the first few lectures but as we got further into the subject, as a reader, I found that the repetition of the concepts kept me grounded and I never felt lost. Excellent examples and I found his diction and style to be crystal clear.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Mr

Bristol, United Kingdom

11/15/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"Very clear, logical and easy to digest"

Any additional comments?

These lectures explain the relatively straight forward principals from which flow some very complex and bewildering physics. This is done in a clear and easy to follow way where much of the time the listener is lead to draw the conclusion that the lecturer is about to posit just in advance of it being stated.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

mr c j glinwood

2/26/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Brilliant teaching great subject"

The lecturer puts ideas across so clearly and takes the time to show you how we got to each stage along the journey. Most importantly he lays it out in a way that you can't fail to understand if you have the mind for it. I've been looking into these subjects for many years and was pleased to find out that there were things I'd overlooked contained in these lessons.

A must read for any budding physicist!

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

M.D.

Marlow, United Kingdom

2/26/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Brilliantly clear, well-presented and entertaining"

Where does Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is the best set of lectures I have ever heard. I would recommend it to anyone.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition?

I was fascinated by "The Elsewhere" - where events in Space-Time are neither in the past nor the future.

Any additional comments?

The clarity of presentation was such that I could listen at double-speed on my iPhone and still follow everything.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Deborah

2/13/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Incredible listen. Captivating.."

Really helped to consolidate my understanding of the current state of physics. An excellent listen for anybody remotely interested in the subject and quintessential for those who already have some schooling but want to brush up. The reader is extremely well spoken uses superb analogies and is a pleasure to listen to. This has been one of my favourite audio books to date.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

James

1/16/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Class stuff man"

It took some time to grasp all the vast concepts in this. Iv listened to it five times or more and finally it's settling in.Top explanatory skills .With every re listening a greater understanding of the everyday and unimaginable

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

jock

1/2/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"good content, seems quite old though"

interesting content, speaker talks fast and gets through a lot but seams like it was recorded in the late 90s while most of the content is still relevant there must be new discoveries

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